Geoege b



(No Model.)

G. B. DURKEE.

4 MANDOLIN. No. 368,461. Patented Aug. 16, 1887.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. DURKEE, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'IO LYON & HEALY.

MANDOLIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 368,461, dated August 16, 1887.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. DURKEE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mandolins, of which the following is a specification.

The popular and peculiarly-shaped instrument known as the ,mandolin is formed with a proximately halfpear-shaped body having a stem or neck that serves as the finger-board of the instrument. The half-pearshaped body of the mandolin is provided with a flat or substantially flat face or soundingboard having a small opening, over which the strings pass.

The peculiar shape of such instrument renders it necessary to construct its body portion of longitudinal strips properly bent and ex tending between the front and the rear or tail end of the body, such strips being glued together along their meeting edges.

Prior to my invention the strips for forming the body of the mandolin have been bent upon a properly-shaped block and glued together along their meeting edges as they are placed on the block, each newly-laid strip being held in place until the glue has hardened by tying it upon the block. The glue joints between the meeting edges of the strips have been found to be of insufficient strength, and hence after forming the concavo-convex portion of the body it has been customary toglue within the same a backing or lining of tough paper or cloth, the flexibility of either article permitting it to be applied and fitted to the inner half-pear-shaped body of the instrument.

The object of my invention is to dispense with the use of the internal paper or cloth lining heretofore employed in the manufacture of mandolins, and to provide means whereby the strips may be secured together more firmly than before, at the same time avoiding the deadening effect resulting from the use of a paper or cloth lining, which must necessarily impair the resonance of the instrument.

To the attainment of the foregoing and other useful ends my invention consists in matters hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings, Figure 1 represents in lonshaped shell of which said body is composed,

is the front piece or block, a, and at the oppo' site end is the rear block or tail-piece, a.

The longitudinal strips (6 are bent substantially as shown, and are glued together along their meeting edges,although no particular attention need be paid to such glue joints. In forming such body, I provide a halfpcarshaped block, 13, having a set of transverse grooves, 1), formed in its convex face. At one end of this block I temporarily secure the front block, a, and at the opposite end secure the tail-piece or block a. In the grooves I), I fit Wooden strips 0, which should be of such thickness as to riseslightly from the flat surface widths If, that are formed along the face of the block, it being observed that the block has a series of longitudinal fiat surface widths b", corresponding in number to the desired number of longitudinal strips a ofwhich the mandolin-body is to be formed.

The cross-strips C may and preferably will be flush with the slightly longitudinally raised edges of the angles between the surface widths b on the block, so that the portions of the strips 0 between such angles can be filed down flat to-correspond with the flat surface widths I)", and hence to correspond with the strips a The longitudinal strips a are to be laid upon the block substantially as illustrated in Fig.

3, and, while preferably glued together along their edges,will be glued onto the cross-strips O,which, after being filed down, will present along their outer sides series of flat widths cor responding to the widths of the longitudinal strips of. It will be observed, however, that the strip a along each longitudinal edge of the body of the mandolin is desirably wider than the width of any one of the strips a, although IOO all ofthe strips could evidently be made of uniforrnwidth. Aftergluingdownacoupleofmiddle strips, a, on the cross-strips 0, held in the grooves of the block, clamps D or other suitable means can be used for holding the strips a in place until the glue becomes hardened, after which two more strips can be similarly laid, and so on until the body has been completed.

It will be observed that the cross strips 0 could not be practically fitted and held in the body after the formation of the latter, and that the longitudinal strips must be laid on the cross-strips in the manner aforesaid. The strips 0 may run directly across from edge to edge, but desirably intersect one another, substantially as herein shown.

In Fig. 2 I have shown certain strips united at the point ofintersection by apiece, E, which, while further holding together the strips, provides a bed for the name of the maker.

The tone of a mandolin thus composed of bent longitudinal strips glued to the bent trans- Verse wooden strips is found to be decidedly superior to a paper or cloth lined instrument, since there is no deadening effect, and, furthermore, the parts retain their position and adherence together as a body in such a way as to avoid all jarring sound.

In conclusion, it may be stated that thel'ornr er-block herein shown, and also the devices for temporarily holding the strips thereon, constitute the subject of an application for Letters Patent of the United States heretofore filed by me, and numbered 237,386.

'What I claim as my invention is- The hereindescribed improvement in mandolins, consisting in the substantially halfpear-shaped mandolinbody composed oflongi tudinal strips laid upon and secured, substan tially as described, to the bent cross-strips O, which lie within the completed mandolinbody, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

GEORGE B. DURKEE.

Witnesses:

CHAS. G. PAGE, L. S. LOGAN. 

